Quote:
Originally Posted by totoum
Gen disowned Blassreiter saying that while he was credited as screenwriter the director did what he wanted and didn't listen to gen.
|
He didn't go quite that far
The gist of it is that Blassreiter was Ichiro Itano's baby, so he controlled the vision and recruited Urobuchi to help prepare the script. Gen's role was that of an assistant, although the project taught him a lot about how anime scripts are made (he cites Itano as a mentor, so their relationship doesn't seem to be hostile).
Madoka was almost the opposite since Shinbo provided minimal guidelines and allowed Urobuchi to write the story he wanted (this time, Gen held the vision and the others brought it to life). Phantom was somewhere in between - the writers adapted the original story quite faithfully but made changes that Mashimo requested.
This demonstrates why the "director vs screenwriter" debate (as seen in other threads) is pointless. Script development is a collaborative process, and in terms of influence, the balance differs from project to project.